It was Sunday afternoon and Julie Richardson was in the garden when her phone rang. Her son, Lee, was one Britain’s finest speedway riders.
A World Under-21 champion, Team GB rider, Grand Prix superstar - and a popular character in the pits. At 33, Lee had a storied career.
He battled early struggles to become one of the smoothest and most consistent riders on shale. As with any speedway rider, Lee had a few bumps along the way, so a phone call to say he had been in a crash was not out of the ordinary. “Speedway riders break bones,” Julie says. “They break arms, collarbones, legs.
I went ‘oh crikey, what’s he done this time?’” The truth was that a tragedy was unfolding 750 miles away in Wroclaw, Poland.
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